17th MoFo Hall of Fame

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I had a free moment, so I went ahead and messaged @Jay Redrum. I gave him a deadline of midnight Pacific Time the night of Tuesday, October 9th to respond.

I'll be out of town for a good chunk of that day since I'm going to a concert in San Francisco. I have no idea when I'll be home or if I'll bother going online before going to bed, so really he has until whenever I wake up Wednesday morning.





Incendies (2010) *spoilers*

I had not heard of this before. I kinda knew it was about something in the middle east, but that's all I knew. I haven't read any of the reviews so don't know what you guys thought of it. I image most will like it, as it's a well made film.

Wow! the opening sequence with the boys getting their heads shaved, that was powerfully artistic. Especially that intense stare into the camera by the boy...Damn that was impressive film making.

When we get to the next scene, the reading of the will, I kinda thought the film might be boring. But then we get into the story of the daughter and her search for her missing brother in the middle east and I was hooked! I was even more hooked when the film flashes back to the early 1970s and we see the mother, who's now a young pregnant woman caught in the middle of the Lebanese civil war. Her story was very engaging and I was riveted to the screen. Both actresses were fascinating to watch and really conveyed their emotions so well, I wish the entire film had been about them.

I'd rate the first hour of the film a solid 5/5 and at this point I thought Incendies might very well be my number 1 choice for this HoF.

But then the second half started and I lost some interest. I didn't like the actor who played the son and thought his story wasn't all that interesting. Neither was the older man from Montreal that went along with him to Lebanon. This last hour took the film down a notch and I did feel like I was watching a movie as opposed to the first hour where I felt like I was watching real people in a real place.

I'm not fond of the ending. Just now, I did a little reading and seen this was based on a play that was based on real events. I don't know how much of this really happened?

But if this was real and the mother revealed to her children that their father was their older brother who raped his own mother in jail, then I'd say she has screwed those kids up for life by telling them that! And the mother claimed to love her first born son, but by telling him that horrible truth in a letter...that's the worse thing she could do to him. If that all really happened then I say it wasn't love in the mother's heart, but vengeance.

Not sure how the ending makes me feel about the movie? If it's based on true events, then it belongs in the movie. However, if the ending was embellished, it's then way too much and takes away from the more heartfelt personal journey that we see in the first hour. Still...this will figure higher on my list, as overall I was impressed.


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Not sure how the ending makes me feel about the movie? If it's based on true events, then it belongs in the movie. However, if the ending was embellished, it's then way too much and takes away from the more heartfelt personal journey that we see in the first hour. Still...this will figure higher on my list, as overall I was impressed.



It's based on true event in the sense that this sort of thing could happen during a war but no this was adapted from a play. The playwright Wajdi Mouawad was clearly inspired by Sophocles.



Warning: potential spoilers for Incendies below.
Not sure how the ending makes me feel about the movie? If it's based on true events, then it belongs in the movie. However, if the ending was embellished, it's then way too much and takes away from the more heartfelt personal journey that we see in the first hour.
The "true" parts of the film/original play only deal with a woman who left college to join a radical group, and attempted to assassinate a political leader. She was sent to the Khiam detention centre for 10 years, where prisoners were tortured both physically and mentally. It was later shut down and turned into a museum, much like Kfar Ryat in the film. After being released the woman moved to France for awhile, and later had two children.



It's based on true event in the sense that this sort of thing could happen during a war but no this was adapted from a play. The playwright Wajdi Mouawad was clearly inspired by Sophocles.
Not familiar with Sophocles, is he a foreign director ....Yeah I know he was an ancient Greek playwright, those ancient Greeks were kind of creepy!

Warning: potential spoilers for Incendies below.

The "true" parts of the film/original play only deal with a woman who left college to join a radical group, and attempted to assassinate a political leader. She was sent to the Khiam detention centre for 10 years, where prisoners were tortured both physically and mentally. It was later shut down and turned into a museum, much like Kfar Ryat in the film. After being released the woman moved to France for awhile, and later had two children.
Thanks Cosmic, good nom. What I liked about the direction, was even though it had brutal scenes the director didn't directly show graphic rape or murder, it's done off screen. Which to me is more effective, as the human mind can image more deeply than film can ever show.





Amélie / Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
(2001)
Directed By: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Serge Merlin

Amélie is an incredibly beautiful film that effectively uses its cinematography to create a world that exists somewhere between fantasy and reality. This dream-like setting is the perfect complement to its cast of strange characters who each have their own unusual quirk. Colour is used wonderfully throughout the film, and combined with interesting camerawork, it creates an incredibly stylish and unique aesthetic that makes every frame of Amélie a pleasure to look at.

Unfortunately many of the elements that make the film stand out just didn't work for me. There are no normal characters in the film, since everyone we are introduced to is weird in one way or another. There needed to be at least one person grounded in reality to act as a contrast Amélie and her acquaintances. I didn't like Amélie herself either, and while she wasn't exactly mugging for the camera or physically winking at the audience, I couldn't help but roll my eyes any time the frame centred on her face for that supposedly charming smile.

I wasn't at all engaged with the story, and found the whole thing to be rather unsubstantial. The music didn't help either, since I'm just not a fan of that style and some of the instruments used. The accordion was the main offender, since I just do not like the sound it produces. That's not something I hold against the film though; it's just a petty grievance. The film didn't resonate with me, but I can understand why a lot of people do really love it. And even though I didn't exactly enjoy watching it again, I do appreciate the visuals, and commend it for its technical aspects.


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Weird is relative.
Can't remember when I last posted here, although I've been reading other people's reviews, so just wanted to say I watched one of the films last week, but haven't written about it yet. I'll try to view another in the next few days and then post my thoughts.



Ghostwatch (1992)



^ Craig Charles knows that six years from this, he has it made with that Robot Wars gig.

*SPOILERS*

This was very intriguing. Using the likes of Sarah Greene and Michael Parkinson to create a unique mockumentary style worked for me. Because, this is not unlike BBC documentaries from the 90s. It doesn't surprise me that so many people thought that this was real and complained in their droves. The ghost hunter reality that became common here in shows like Most Haunted would lessen the effect of this film but Ofcom would undoubtedly still get a sh*t ton of complaints if this aired today. The paranormal footage imitations since this are probably why I didn't connect with much of the tension but it's still a creative film. It would have hit a lot harder seeing this live.

There's a section towards the end where the camera cuts back to the house and it looks like the chaos has stopped. However, the audience knows that can't be the case. I enjoyed that eeriness and was kind of hoping that the film would end there. The potential ambiguity would have been great but that's more of a subjective wish. I found the last few minutes more humorous than anything with Parkinson stumbling around the studio like a drunkard after unwittingly assisting with a paranormal invasion.

Definitely wouldn't have seen this without the HoF so cheers @HashtagBrownies



We are now three weeks into the Hall of Fame. We're pretty well on track with 69 write-ups, if my count is correct, and 14/15 people current on their check-ins.

According to his profile, @Jay Redrum was active 1 day ago, but he did not post anything and did not reply to my message. I sent him another message but I would advise anyone who hasn't yet watched The Assassination of Jesse James to hold off on it for now.



I saw this when it was moderately new and didn't like it too much. Lets see if rewatch changes anything. Oh, and this time I remember @Miss Vicky

Amélie (2001)

Amélie is a young woman who's escaped her loneliness and dull reality into fantasies since she was a little girl. She yearns for love but instead of trying to find someone she rather just dreams of happiness. One day, by accident more than anything else, she decides to start "helping" others and while doing so she meets a young man equally weird as she is. Can she find the courage to face the real world?


Like Jeunet's films in general Amélie looks really beautiful. To me he kind of defines the look of modern French movie (probably because he's the first modern French director who's films I enjoyed as a young man). Amélie isn't as wild in its cinematography as some of his earlier works but it makes it up with its rich colors. To put it short visually the film is amazing.

When it comes to story Amélie isn't my kind of movie. I don't mean it's a bad romance (quite opposite actually, I'd say it's clearly above average) but that I rarely enjoy pure romances. The biggest single issue is the character Amélie; I can only assume that she's meant to be adorable in her own weird and naive way but to me she seems like a borderline psychopath who doesn't consider other people real and thus has no moral issues in meddling with their lives for her own amusement. For me a film like this needs to have a protagonist I like but Amélie certainly isn't such.

Other than the annoying main character the script is pretty nice. There's too much narration that mostly focuses on needless information (a joke that didn't work for me) though. Acting is good but like in many French films the characters are exaggeratedly weird. The music was kinda irritating but rather fitting. Small fantasy elements worked well and enhanced the film's likeness to fairy tales.

Not my type of film with annoying lead (there were some aspects of her I could relate to still) but brilliant technical execution. It's not even close to being bad and I can easily see why someone else could think it's great. For me it's merely OK.



Seems like not much has changed in last 15 years or so considering this movie. I remember thinking exactly the same about Amélie back then and she's still the biggest problem for me here.



Are we supposed to be tagging Miss Vicky in our reviews? I've seen it a few times now and am wondering if there's something I overlooked earlier, but it doesn't appear to be in the posted rules.

Edit: Okay, I just went back and found the post where it was mentioned (shortly after the nominations were revealed). I'll keep that in mind going forward.



If you can't get the @ thing to work by typing it manually, when you go to the advanced options there is a mention button that looks like a speaker that you can use. Just type the person's username in between the mention tags and that should do the trick.





Let the Right One In / Låt den rätte komma in (2008)
Directed By: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar

Let the Right One In features an amazing use of ambient sound. Sometimes the difference in volume became a bit of an issue for me, but the overall design was excellent. Even though I typically prefer the look of films that use hard light and stark contrasts, the diffused light in this film is just as effective at setting the atmosphere, and works incredibly well. The reserved camerawork, with its slow, even movements and stationary viewpoints was another aspect that I greatly appreciated, adding to the list of technical elements that the film executes wonderfully.

Violence is handled extremely well throughout the film as well. It's not grotesque, because there aren't any close-ups of the actual attacks - just screams, flailing, and blood. It skips the gory details without becoming too tame. That said, I would've preferred the film to focus more on some of the horror elements, since I don't find the childhood romance plot to be particularly engaging. If not that, then having Eli's identity issues play a more prominent role would've sufficed as well, since it's really glossed over. I don't mean more shocking nude imagery, but rather more ambiguous or subtle dialogue throughout the film instead.

Oskar is not a particularly likeable character at the start, since he's just one step away from murdering his classmates. I don't think that being bullied is a justifiable excuse for his violent fantasies, but he did grow on me over the course of the film. His performance was great, as were the physical and vocal performances of the actors who played Eli. The dubbing of Eli's lines was very well done. The voice really suited the character, it sounded natural, and the lip syncing was nearly perfect. I even rewatched a few scenes without the subtitles and paid close attention to Lina Leandersson's mouth because I was thoroughly impressed with how well incorporated it was.
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Strangely after typing that above response to cricket, neither method of using the mention tag worked when I tried to add it to that review just now.

Maybe it's simply because I forgot to add it before hitting submit the first time? I guess you can't edit them in after the fact. Or maybe the universe is just having a laugh haha.